Game Info:What's the deal here? We are going to play Trespasser, a Jurassic Park FPS known best for three things:

-Allowing you to use items in the environment as weapons.

-Numerous graphical bugs.

-And an unusual health display system.

What the heck are we doing? In this LP we will be examining each of the 8 levels of Trespasser and discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the game as we go on. The game is infamous for its bugs, both regular and physics-based so expect to see some glitching. I will be playing each level start to finish and providing relevant commentary in a video to be posted in each update. In addition, there will be a 60 second recap video for the ADD kids out there who don't have time for the regular vid. Just so everyone knows what the deal is, this intro should give you an idea of what's going on.

Tell me about Trespasser: We are going to travel back in time to late 1998 when the most anticipated game of the year, Trespasser was released. It crashed like a lead balloon and left a legacy of how not to make an FPS. Trespasser reached for the moon and fell short, but deserves to be remembered for the attempt. For a whole lot of info, I direct your attention to this:

Man, I always remember the terrible ammo counting system for this...she'd shout how many bullets she had as she shot them. Why they didn't just put in a minimalistic hud is beyond me...notheless this should be good.

Mister E posted:

And I always loved how Anne could strongarm a hunting rifle and shotgun like nobody's business.

At least this game is realistic unlike many other first person shooters in the sense Anne apparently has no experience with firearms and it shows, because she can't use them for poo poo. I mean in Half-Life Gordon Freeman is just a scientist who has probably never fired a gun in his life, but he can just pick up a shotgun or a machine gun and use it like he's been a firearm enthusiast his entire life. At least this game makes it so using the gun is awkward and aiming is extremely difficult.

This Compsognathus model at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History shows the animal's narrow skull and long, tapered snout.

Nice! This is a game I for no reason will ever want to play, EVER, but which has a lot of interesting technical things about it. Since I recently did an LP for Lost World it's quite cool to see how they do all the enemies and environments in this game compared to the other one, and you've certainly really good at producing the videos. The sort of cowboy-ish (not sure how to explain it) vibe of your voice also helps a lot in making it feel like sort of a hunting trip.

But the important question remain. Is there a Compsognatus in this game?

He works as a film editor, and it really shows! Don't think a regular VLP of this would work very well, it would end up in groaning and moaning, this guy seems like he could maintain a professional image all the way through.

(edit: I do wonder if it's possible to get hold of someone who worked on this game. Would be nice to hear their thoughts now, ten years in the future, reactions to the VLP, etc)

MrLonghair fucked around with this message at Apr 6, 2008 around 21:47

I think part of it is the voice, sure, but his approach also helps. A lot of LPers would approach all these things with some kind of attempt at humor but RI is completely deadpan about it without sounding bored or annoyed. We could use more LPs like that, just teaching us about the game without trying to put on a three-ring circus.

Rookoo posted:

Why they didn't just put in a minimalistic hud is beyond me

It would be better if the player just had some way to check the rounds in a weapon by just, maybe, looking at it but this is apparently still too advanced, ten years later. Floating text hovering in front of you is a lovely compromise but apparently it's the one everyone's settled on.

Are there any decent games out there that avoid the hackery of the HUD? It's such a great idea but it never seems to take off. Still, a noble attempt for its time, aside from the necessity of constant navel-gazing.

This is a really amazing of example of how good production values and research can turn what's a pretty nondescript intro level into something that held my interest more than almost any other video LP I've seen.

Hey everyone, thanks for the kind words. You all hit the nail on the head, when you get right down to it Trespasser is not a very interesting game. Sure it's pretty, and can be funny sometimes, but the limitations of 1998 forced huge sections of NOTHING in between the interesting parts. To answer some of your questions:

-There is a HUD that the mod adds to the game. It is terrible and I will show you why next time.

-This LP is not commissioned, I just like putting a lot of work into projects.

-I'm sorry to say there are no Compys in the game. The Trespasser engine only allows 7 enemies per level and the developers didn't want to spend those on something so small I guess. All for the best though, I have no idea how you would fight swarms of anything in this game

-Both Halo and Alien vs Predator have guns with an ammo counter on them, but you'd usually just use the HUD anyway. Anne shouts out the number of remaining bullets and sometimes she's wrong.

-You are all welcome to play along but I will warn you, the reason this LP didn't go up a week and a half ago is because Trespasser killed my laptop and crashes like mad on my good desktop. I am playing and recording on the 10 year old 486 that I first installed Trespasser on back when it first came out. Win95 compatibility mode will not save you.

Research Indicates posted:

-Both Halo and Alien vs Predator have guns with an ammo counter on them, but you'd usually just use the HUD anyway. Anne shouts out the number of remaining bullets and sometimes she's wrong.

That's getting very common in games these days. Especially when it's a sci-fi game. Almost every weapon in Doom 3 for instance have visible ammo counters on them and I think that's the case with Q4 too. Of course I think they had a HUD showing the ammo anyway. Which feels a bit self-defeating.
And I think I heard her say "Possibly *number* in the video.

Cooked Auto fucked around with this message at Apr 6, 2008 around 22:18